The Toronto Blue Jays payroll will increase for the 2011 season and
could rise even more if the team is in contention next summer.

Rogers Media president Keith Pelley
said in an interview Wednesday that the team’s payroll will increase
over the winter, mainly because of the number of Blue Jays eligible for
arbitration. Those eligible include American League home run champion
Jose Bautista and pitchers Brandon Morrow and Shaun Marcum.

“Obviously, the payroll will need to
be increased to be able to sustain the team we had this year and then
compete for a championship,” Pelley said. “This team is poised to be a
competitive, exciting ball club for the next 10 years.”

How about from the player’s side, Bautista’s feelings of loyalty to
the Jays for giving him the opportunity to play every day after four
years of journeyman status? Or what would be best for him moving forward
— a multi-year deal after just one superb season, with lingering doubts
playing on the bottom-line offer, or a second fabulous season that
would erase any doubts and set him up for life?

“It depends on how you look at it,”
Bautista said. “From my point of view as a player, I’m not worried by
any concern that the team might have whether I can repeat it or not. I
have no problems with an arbitration deal and going back out there and
hopefully doing as well as I did this year. Maybe I won’t hit 54 home
runs. I want to be a productive player. That being said, I can also hit
60.”

Congats on the Hank Aaron Award! So where does he finish in the MVP vote?

Butterfield
refused comment on his other options, but he would have had no
difficulty finding work elsewhere. He is highly respected throughout
baseball and has always been popular with his players.
He said he
does not know Farrell well, but developed respect for his work as
Boston’s pitching coach over the past four seasons. Former Red Sox
pitching great Curt Schilling was among many of Butterfield’s baseball
friends who spoke highly of Farrell, he said.
“Curt Schilling is
someone I have the utmost respect for, and he thinks John Farrell is one
of the brightest, best men in all of baseball,” Butterfield said. “That
was certainly good enough for me.”
Butterfield played five years
in the minor leagues and began his pro coaching career at 26, eventually
managing five years in the minors. Now 52, he remains confident he will
manage in the majors.

I give him a lot respect for sticking around with the team. Now go out there and make Adam Lind into a first baseman, God damn it.

Because as bad as last year looked, there was a progression in his numbers that might give his owners some hope.
Here are his isolated slugging percentages, starting with his rookie
year, and not including last year: .125, .113, .136. And his flyball
percentages: 22.9%, 24.7%, 30.0%. And his groundball percentages: 56%,
58.2%, 50%. And his HR/FB: 7.9%, 9.1%, 10.1%. If only last year’s .062
ISO, 28.4% flyballs, 53.6% groundballs and 3.3% HR/FB didn’t spoil the
fun, you could say that his batted ball profile was trending towards
more power.

A decent article written from a fantasy perspective on Esco. Does anyone really care if he hits bombs? Don't get me wrong, it's always nice to have but I would much prefer to see him work the count and get on base for the big boys.

Backup
catcher Jose Molina will return to the Toronto Blue Jays next season,
providing them with a veteran presence to complement the expected
full-season debut of J.P. Arencibia.
The Jays have picked up Molina’s US$1.2-million club option. Molina,
35, batted .246 with 12 RBIs and a career-high six homers. He threw out
40.6% of potential base stealers.
In his 11-year career, Molina has a .236 average while stopping 37.7% of steal attempts against him.

As expected, we exercised the option on Molina. Classic catch and throw guy. Whatever he does with the stick is gravy.

In John Farrell he certainly believes he's found that man, a former
big-league pitcher who has worked both as a farm director and pitching
coach and whose only real question mark seems to be a lack of previous
managerial experience.
The 48-year-old from Monmouth Beach, N.J., named the 12th manager in
franchise history Monday afternoon, is an articulate speaker with a
commanding presence and a winning background.

His challenge now is to leverage a strong and
wide-ranging resume to take charge of an entire team, and match wits
with four elite rival managers in the American League East.
"There were a lot of very qualified candidates out there, but what it
came down to was who had the chance to be the best manager, long term,"
said Anthopoulos. "It was very difficult for me to go into this process
and hire someone who I felt could be good but not great, it's not the
way I operate, I don't think it's what we need in this division and to
get where we need to get to.
"I had to hire someone that I felt had a chance to be great."

This
was the best write up I could find on our new fearless leader. I must
say, seeing him in a Red Sox uni up till the point he was hired made me
angry. My hatred for them runs deep.